Lily's Quilt.

I’ve had a request from family members to post pictures of Lily’s Christmas present. As we all know, Lily is a voracious reader and so I decided for Christmas that I would make her a reading quilt with blocks from some of her favorite books. Here’s what made the list:

Harry Potter
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Boxcar Children
The Fablehaven series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The Wizard of Oz
The Graveyard Book
The Mysterious Benedict Society
The Sisters Grimm
and
The Chronicles of Narnia

It was really fun making the quilt because I got a chance to be creative and while I’m no artist—it was fun to figure out which scenes represented each book. As for the appliqué itself, I mostly copied images from the books or from images online. There was no freehand in this. Lily was delighted with the quilt which made it all the more fun and it was an absolute surprise which wasn’t easy as the little girls saw what I was working on each day and had to be redirected as Lily walked in the door.

Its purpose has been filled as I often see Lily wrapped up in it as she’s reading her books.

Anyway, what do you think?

Here are some of the blocks up close.




This one is probably my favorite, because I was thinking that it'd just have to be a boxy, boring boxcar. And then I saw this silhouette in the book and thought I'd try it. It worked!


This fairy one was the first one I did and it gave me hope that I might actually be able to pull this off.



The back and binding.

Jane Elizabeth: January 26, 2007

Jane turned three a couple of weeks ago. When she was born, Alice was only 18 months old and, needless to say, the first year or so felt like a blur. When Jane was born we were 99% sure that her name was going to be Beth. Then, in the hospital—as we looked at her, I mentioned Jane—and as Lily said, “it just felt right.” Canyon had the honor of giving Jane her middle name, Elizabeth, named after—who else—Elizabeth Swan from “Pirates of the Caribbean.” It doesn’t feel like three years since she was born, but as she is already acting like a 5-year-old—I guess it’s appropriate.

Here’s what we love about Jane:

She loves to snuggle.

She has perfect hair with just the right amount of curl.

She talks like she’s ten.

She gets whatever she wants and can be a real stinker (I guess that’s what happens when you’re the youngest).

She wants to do everything herself.

She loves her sisters and brother.

She’s what we like to call, independent. Others might call it stubborn.

She’ll eat anything.

All of her baby dolls are named Janie (after her of course).

She knows exactly how and when to turn on the charm to avoid some serious discipline.

And we can’t imagine life without her.

Happy Birthday Jane!